Nearly six months after releasing iOS 7 to the public and introducing the iPhone 5s, Apple has released its first major update to iOS 7, iOS 7.1. The newly released iOS 7.1 is available for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch iOS 7-compatible devices. In this update Apple has removed even more elements to the user interface, making it cleaner. iOS 7.1 has also fixed many bugs found in iOS 7 with its improvements.
The CarPlay feature that was announced last week is now available with iOS 7.1. The update brings improvements to Siri, the camera, and the calendar. Apple claims that iOS 7.1 fixes many bugs by improving fingerprint recognition in Touch ID, and occasional crashes while users in the Home screen. iPhone 4 owners should also have better performances with improved speeds.
If you own an iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, 5c or iPhone 5s you can download the update through iTunes or the OTA update feature. iPad users with an iPad 2 or later or an iPad mini can download the update as well. The iPod touch 5-gen is the only iPod touch capable of running this update.
Here’s the full list of new features and improvements, from Apple.com:
- CarPlay
- iOS experience designed for the car
- Simply connect your iPhone to a CarPlay enabled vehicle
- Supports Phone, Music, Maps, Messages, and 3rd-party audio apps
- Control with Siri and the car’s touchscreen, knobs, and buttons
- Siri
- Manually control when Siri listens by holding down the home button while you speak and releasing it when you’re done as an alternative to letting Siri automatically notice when you stop talking
- New, more natural sounding male and female voices for Mandarin Chinese, UK English, Australian English, and Japanese
- iTunes Radio
- Search field above Featured Stations to easily create stations based on your favorite artist or song
- Buy albums with the tap of a button from Now Playing
- Subscribe to iTunes Match on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to enjoy iTunes Radio ad-free
- Calendar
- Option to display events in month view
- Country specific holidays automatically added for many countries
- Accessibility
- Bold font option now includes the keyboard, calculator, and many icon glyphs
- Reduce Motion option now includes Weather, Messages, and multitasking UI animations
- New options to display button shapes, darken app colors, and reduce white point
- New Camera setting to automatically enable HDR for iPhone 5s
- iCloud Keychain support in additional countries
- FaceTime call notifications are automatically cleared when you answer a call on another device
- Fixes a bug that could occasionally cause a home screen crash
- Improves Touch ID fingerprint recognition
- Improved performance for iPhone 4
- Fixes display of Mail unread badge for numbers greater than 10,000
- Continued user interface refinements
You can also download the firmware IPSW directly from Apple server from the links below. This will require iTunes to have the firmware installed on your device:
iPad iOS 7.1 IPSW:
- iPad Air (Model A1474)
- iPad Air (Model A1475)
- iPad mini (Model A1489)
- iPad mini (Model A1490)
- iPad (4th generation Model A1458)
- iPad (4th generation Model A1459)
- iPad (4th generation Model A1460)
- iPad mini (Model A1432)
- iPad mini (Model A1454)
- iPad mini (Model A1455)
- iPad Wi-Fi 3rd generation
- iPad Wi-Fi + Cellular (model for ATT)
- iPad Wi-Fi + Cellular (model for Verizon)
- iPad 2 Wi-Fi
- iPad 2 Wi-Fi (Rev A)
- iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G (GSM)
- iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G (CDMA)
iPhone iOS 7.1 IPSW:
- iPhone 5s (Model A1453, A1533)
- iPhone 5s (Model A1457, A1518, A1528, A1530)
- iPhone 5c (Model A1456, A1532)
- iPhone 5c (Model A1507, A1516, A1526, A1529)
- iPhone 5 (Model A1428)
- iPhone 5 (Model A1429)
- iPhone 4s
- iPhone 4 (GSM)
- iPhone 4 (GSM Rev A)
- iPhone 4 (CDMA)